The design, by New York architecture firm Clouds Architecture Office, would invert the classic idea of buildings sprouting from the Earth upwards. Instead, unused real estate from the sky to outer space would be the New Hotness:

Analemma inverts the traditional diagram of an earth-based foundation, instead depending on a space-based supporting foundation from which the tower is suspended. This system is referred to as the Universal Orbital Support System (UOSS). By placing a large asteroid into orbit over earth, a high strength cable can be lowered towards the surface of earth from which a super tall tower can be suspended. Since this new tower typology is suspended in the air, it can be constructed anywhere in the world and transported to its final location.

The tower would be constructed in Dubai and then transported to above New York City; but the building (and the asteroid) would be in geosynchronous orbit & also have passes over the Southeastern United States and South America.

And it would be essentially a whole mini-city unto itself, complete with residential, business, entertainment, agricultural, and worship centers; at the very top, with an elevation of 32,000 meters, -40C temperature and near vacuum conditions, would be a mortuary.

Looking at the Clouds Architecture Office online portfolio, it is clear that many of their proposals and works are somewhat “visionary”—so it would be easy to conclude that something as fantastic as Analemma Tower would never really see the light of day (or the depths of space).

On the other hand…this is all where we are heading, isn’t it?As I wrote in a recent post, there seems to be a point of view (mostly not outwardly articulated, but rather self-evident) that the Earth is “beyond saving” and we have to start to look at alternatives. While not exactly on the level of colonizing Mars, a skyscraper dangling from an asteroid is a good first step.

But who would live in these things? What type of temperment would best suit such extreme environments? Or have we—especially in city areas working a good portion of our lives in offices and spending our free time on the Internet & indoors—been “trained” to eventually accept such a fate?